Retailers’ views of tobacco policy and law enforcement

Abstract

Aims: Tobacco retailers are in a unique position to implement policies that can influence sales and ultimately tobacco use, so the present survey explored retailers’ tobacco policies, involvement and problems with law enforcement, and pessimism about whether youth will obtain tobacco products.

Methods: 144 randomly selected tobacco retailers (30.1% return rate) in Mississippi, USA, completed a 2-page questionnaire about their store tobacco policies.

Findings: Present retailers, on average, endorsed fewer than half of eight commonly-adopted tobacco access policies. Significantly fewer anti-tobacco policies were complied with when those responding (a) were owners rather than managers, (b) worked at convenience stores rather than grocery stores, (c) had no law-enforcement involvement rather than some, and (d) had 18+ years of retail experience rather than less. Policy correlated significantly with law-enforcement involvement, but not significantly with tobacco-enforcement problems or pessimism about youth tobacco sales.

Conclusions: By their own self-report, there is considerable room for improvement in retailers’ youth tobacco access policies. Individually-owned, convenience stores, where the owner has lots of retail experience, have few tobacco policies. They may be a particularly appropriate targets for educational efforts.